GUEST COLUMNIST: The University's conflicting halves

But in fact, this institution has two internally consistent, mutually contradictory policies toward the community. The "Penn" policy is followed by the University's 12 schools. Essentially, these schools treat the community both as an opportunity to fulfill the University's mission of service, and as a living lab and source for research data. Very often, the Penn approach is exploitative to some extent; the schools provide services in exchange for the community serving an educational or research function. Although the projects themselves are coherent, there appears to be no consistent University-wide strategy involved. Consequently, efforts are piecemeal and generally ineffective in spurring significant change. The efforts are piecemeal, and Penn policy is good for the community, but not terribly helpful. The other approach is the "UP Inc." policy -- and it is consistent, coherent, powerful and wholly destructive to the University City and West Philadelphia community. UP Inc. is Penn acting as a corporation, with the same amorality and lack of social consciousness displayed by America's least socially responsible corporations. UP Inc. is the policy that leads to the University negotiating with the city for Penn Police protection in areas with the greatest concentration of University property, not the greatest concentration of University community members. UP Inc. is the policy that leads to the University negotiating a deal with a local landlord that allows him to avoid all sorts of taxes in exchange for a substantial annuity; UP Inc. makes out and the landlord makes out, but the city and the community get nothing out of the deal. UP Inc. is the policy that leads to the exchange of University jobs, offering community members decent pay and benefits, for outsourced jobs, with low pay and lousy (if any) benefits. Again, UP Inc. makes out and the stockholders in the company that takes over a University division makes out, but the city collects fewer wage taxes and the purchasing power of the community suffers. UP Inc. is the policy that treats every problem as first and foremost a public relations problem. And UP Inc. is the policy of creating an entirely new and artificial retail district that sells affluent Penn students to prospective tenants as a captive market, to maximize UP Inc.'s rental income. This strategy is similar to the "mall"-ification of America, which destroyed viable retail districts in virtually every small- and medium-sized town in this nation. Old-time retail districts were populated by locally owned and operated businesses, while the malls are populated by stores owned by huge conglomerates with no comunity roots. And as UP Inc. continues to expand and promote non-community based businesses in University City, the few local businesses that remain struggle for survival. UP Inc. is the policy that ignores the University's mission of education, research and service. It is a juggernaut that treats the accumulation of cold hard cash as its first priority. UP Inc. also has the power of every penny of the University's considerable assets at its disposal in pursuit of this goal. Ultimately, UP Inc. is destroying not only the community that it dominates, but the University as a whole. For every dollar Penn earns, two more pay for insulating the University from the effects of its own avarice, on such things as security systems, police patrols, Escort services and massive public relations efforts, assuring students that they are safe and parents that their children will be returned to them alive and in one piece. Utimately, UP Inc. is creating an environment of physical fear, completely incompatible with intellectual freedom and inquiry. And ultimately, as the ethos of greed and self-interest that UP Inc. personifies permeates the rest of the University, as we acquiesce to UP Inc.'s inevitable and irresistable corruption, the University will lose its soul.

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